The Right Stuff: Scott Carpenter's Mission: Photos

On Thursday (Oct. 10, 2013), Scott Carpenter, NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy aquanaut, died after suffering a stroke. He was 88. Carpenter, who was the second U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth and only the fourth U.S. astronaut to go into space following in the footsteps of following Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom and John Glenn. Carpenter is seen here in an orbital flight simulation in procedures trainer before his historic 1962 spaceflight.

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Carpenter dons the Project Mercury suit he will wear on his MA-7 orbital flight.

Lt. Col. John H. Glenn, Jr. (center), gets a multiple handshake from his fellow astronauts after he arrived at the Grand Turk Island Medical Center in the Bahamas. Glenn had just made his history-making flight into space. Left to right: M. Scott Carpenter; Don Slayton; Glenn; Virgil Grissom; Alan Shepard; and Walter M. Schirra, Jr. Missing from the group is astronaut Leroy G. Cooper.

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May 14, 1962 -- Spacecraft No. 18, named Aurora 7 by its pilot astronaut Scott Carpenter, is lowered into position for mating to its Atlas booster.

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May 24, 1962 -- Carpenter wears a somewhat tense smile as a suit technician makes a final check of the neck coupling for his space helmet. Carpenter climbed into his Aurora Seven space capsule a few hours after this picture was made.

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May 24, 1962 -- Astronaut Scott Carpenter talks with technicians just before entering his Aurora 7 Mercury spacecraft for his successful 3-orbit flight.

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May 24, 1962 -- View of the launching of Mercury Atlas with Scott Carpenter aboard the Aurora 7 Mercury capsule at beginning of his historic orbital flight.

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In the Atlantic: Astronaut Scott Carpenter talks via ship-to-shore telephone with President Kennedy just after he was brought aboard the aircraft carrier Intrepid following his rescue from the Ocean. He splashed down 250 miles off target.

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After his single, historic spaceflight, Carpenter joined the U.S. Navy's SEALAB project. Here, he stands atop Sealab II and gives the signal for it to be lowered to the bottom of the ocean off the California coast where he resided for 28 days.

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The original seven Project Mercury astronauts: front row, from left, are Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Donald "Deke" K. Slayton, John Glenn Jr., and M. Scott Carpenter. Back row, from left, are Alan Shepard Jr., Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, and Gordon Cooper. After the death of Carpenter, John Glenn is now the only surviving member of the original Project Mercury astronauts.